How Web Sites Vary Prices Based On Personal Data (And What You Can Do About It)

It should come as no surprise that online retailers can change prices depending on your location, browser or and operating system. But what’s really going on here? Let’s take a look at the tactics retailers use to suggest different prices to you, and how you can work around them.

Prices change all the time in brick and mortar stores based on location, but when you’re shopping online it’s assumed that everyone’s getting the same deal. That’s not always the case, and as it turns out, certain retailers change the price based on location with “dynamic pricing.”

How Web Sites Vary Prices

It’s no surprise that some elements of pricing at online stores vary; postage to Australia will be different from postage to Europe. But that isn’t always transparent. One of the more infamous examples is Book Depository, which claims free worldwide shipping but actually adjusts its price based on your location (As a result, it’s possible to get even cheaper prices with a simple hack.)

In other cases, the basis for discrimination is less obvious. As early as 2000, Amazon tested dynamic pricing on DVDs by offering different prices to customers based on location and other factors (one example was the Complete Second Season of the X-Files at: $89.99, $97.49 and $104.99). Amazon copped flack and quickly dropped the practice, but many other retailers adopted it.

One computer scientist who builds smart sites for online retailers — with a nondisclosure agreement, hence the anonymity — says that concerns about different customers getting different price quotes for the same good are probably overblown. Some retailers do it, particularly when gauging the market for certain items… major retailers are getting much more sophisticated and subtle about ways to game their shoppers. It’s common for big retail web sites to direct different users to different deals, offers, or items based on their purchase histories or cookies… And companies frequently offer special deals for customers with a few items in their shopping bags-from discounts on additional items, to free shipping, to coupons for future purchases. Ingenuity, rather than simple price-tampering, is now the name of the game.

In the US, offers may be varied based on area of residence. That’s slightly less common in Australia, if only because of the smaller population.

How To Make Sure You Get the Best Deal

So, what can you actually do about this? The most important point: shop around carefully and don’t dive on the first deal you see. Beyond that, there are some technical tweaks you can make.

Change Your IP Address

Retailers can tell where you are through two distinct methods: you tell them where you are (via an address), or they deduce your location from your IP address. If you suspect a site is gaming pricing based on your IP address, either a proxy server or VPN. Changing your IP address doesn’t guarantee you’ll end up with a better deal, but you’ll at least know if the sites you frequent are changing the price on you. (This is the basis of the Book Depository price hack we mentioned earlier.)

Check Mobile Prices Before You Buy

An easy way to check if your browser or operating system is a factor is to double-check pricing on your phone. If you see different prices on the same site purely by changing device, shenanigans are afoot.

Another option is to change your “user agent” (which is how your browser identifies itself to sites). You can change your user agent in any browser (see our guide for the full details).

Dynamic pricing isn’t a new development, and it’s far from universal. Ultimately, your best defence is to be a smart consumer: shop around, make sure you understand the total cost, and don’t commit to a deal in a rush just because it claims to be a “special”.

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Step 1. Know the manufacturer set RRP
Step 2. Try to do better, haggle if need be (know when this is appropriate)
Step 3. Try to get another retailer to price match
Step 4. Don't get too cut when you haven't found the cheapest price anyone ever paid anywhere, and don't cry when a retailer won't sell to you below their cost price.

It always pays to do some research to find the true market value of a product before purchasing, especially if big dollars are involved.

Actually consumer protection laws ensure that two people can't be charged different prices for the same product. The moment you see this on an Australian site log a complaint with Fair Trading and let them deal with it.

Caveat:- There are examples that businesses get away with and it's usually in the insurance sector where individual risk is assessed. Just be aware however for simple products they can't change the price just because you live somewhere else.

Maccas still do it. I live in a town outside Melbourne and commute to Melbourne everyday. A long black coffee is $2.90 where I live and is $3.30-$3.40 in Melbourne (depending on area). A typical meal I get is $9.30 where I live and $10.10 in Melbourne.

You're confusing "different stores" with "different customers". Supermarkets don't charge differently from one person in a queue to the next, only from store to store. The cases being talked about in the article is the same store charging different prices to different people.

I may be wrong as it was the other day when I read this but they are doing that based on location.. i.e you and anyone in your area\country get one price, and anyone in an other area\country get another price. How is that different to what supermarkets do by charging different prices based on what suburb you live in? Mosman is expensive, Brookvale is cheap.

Look, different stores are allowed to charge different prices because different stores have different overheads including but not limited to rent, insurance, and other bills etc. Supermarkets charging different prices may be related to this, but it's most likely the case that they can get away with abusing this due to people not checking, they charge the most they think they can get away with charging.

Ultimately the point still remains, online stores it is ONE store charging different people a different price, these variations are based on location, cookies, what else you've looked at etc. When it comes to supermarket, it doesnt' vary for reasons such as this, it is by location, by store, NOT by customer. THAT is the difference.

To clarify my previous point - this is not the same as a chain store having separate prices in different stores. This only applies if the 1 store (in this case online) charges a different price for the same good/service. For chain stores they can charge varying prices due to differing overheads such as rent.

You're confusing "different stores" with "different customers". Service stations don't charge differently from one person in a queue to the next, only from service station to service station. The cases being talked about in the article is the same store charging different prices to different people.

Hair dressers routinely charge men and women differently, and some hotels and nightclubs offer cheaper prices to women. Hotels and planes charge differently depending on the mechanism used to book.
As long as they charge the price they are telling people they will charge, there's nothing misleading about the practice.